At last I have had more time to spend in the studio to work on painting my little men. In the remaining days of December since my last update, the 10mm 1866 Italians were finished. In the new year I started my next project: 6 battalions of 1815 French infantry. I’m on course to finish these by month end! Alas the early January club game had to be cancelled because my wife wasn’t well.
10mm 1866 Italians
This relatively modest batch has taken me months of elapsed time as I have not been able to spend much time in the studio across October to Christmas. There are nine bases of line infantry, three of Bersaglieri , four of cavalry, a more impressive seven of artillery, plus two limbers and five generals.
10mm is a new scale for me, and I’m starting to understand that they are small. And as my efforts show, difficult o photograph! You can’t see much in these pictures. There isn’t actually a huge amount to see. The 1866 uniform meant that the men were in grey greatcoats (as were the Austrians), notwithstanding the heat. No regimental distinctions are visible. The red pompon on the shako is about the only feature to lighten the dull appearance. The greatcoats are described as blue-grey, and illustrations show variations from almost French-style dark blue, to neutral mid-grey. A went for a paler blue-grey (reminiscent of French WWI troops) – as I want to there be a clear difference with the mid-grey Austrians. The Bersaglieri are only slightly more interesting in their dark blue uniforms. My original plan was to put them on 30mm by 20mm bases, but when basing I started using the pile of 30mm by 25mm bases (my new standard for 18mm troops), and all but two are on this deeper bases. They look fine, but I prefer things to be a bit more compact.
Th cavalry are a bit more interesting – each regiment has a distinguishing colour for facings and kepi. I painted up four bases from two regiments. I had to make and paint my own flag using foil – not too hard to do fortunately. Foil is nicer than the printed paper I use mainly, though I struggled a bit with paint adhesion, as my usual gesso primer didn’t fully stick at first pass.
Artillery is proving a bit of a headache for this project. The main Italian piece was the 8-pdr. In this era the use of pounds to denote calibre had lost all comparability between nations. But this ordnance was heavier than the main Austrian piece, the 4-pdr. The models in the Pendraken 8-pdr pack look like smoothbores, though, which would be suitable for 1869, but not 1866, when the Italians had rearmed with rifled weapons. Apparently these were based on the French 4-pdr RML guns – so I bought a pack of these (complete with French crew). I painted these up to use with my Italian crews, but they look a bit small! If I get to 1859, I will have a use for the French crews anyway. The limbers are French – the uniforms are slightly different, but I don’t think that matters too much.
I will write more about this army when I finish it. This will require as many as 40 more bases of infantry, which is quite a daunting prospect. I am going to finish the Austrians first.
1815 French
My Napoleonic French infantry are mid-war (1807-1812) and have been working very hard. GDA2 uses a lot of miniatures, and it’s been clear that the troops need reinforcements. Since their main opponents these days are my late war (1812-1815) Prussians, clearly these should also be from the late war period. AB have a relatively new range of late-war French, and I wanted to use these. My New Year’s resolution for 2025 was to get 6 battalions into action. But I decided to prioritise six battalions of Prussians, and then got distracted by WW2 and 1866. As my painting schedule became dislocated in the late part of 2025, the resolution went unfulfilled. But I had bought the miniatures and I have been at it with a will this month. They should be ready in time my club game on 1 February, just a month behind schedule.
The picture shows where I’ve got to: five of the six battalions are ready for finishing (bases and a wash). The remaining battalion will take another couple of sessions to do – so I’m on track!
I will post more about these when I’m finished. The AB castings are a joy! These are much more fun to paint than the small 10mm figures I’m doing for 1866. I might need to rethink things in future. I am now hatching a scheme to do another six French late-war battalions.
January isn’t over – but I will report on the last week in my next monthly update. I hope to do a post specifically on my new French battalions too.
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